358 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



tions. In time of stress and battle their loyalty and 

 devotion would be unquestionable, and it would fare ill 

 with any foe who came across their path. They have 

 not been spoiled and degraded by the halfpenny picture 

 newspaper, and few acknowledgments are made of their 

 deeds of valour on the stormy waters. No person who 

 has worked amongst them and shared their lives and 

 dangers can hesitate to pay tribute to their courage and 

 simplicity, or fail to recognise how valuable they would 

 be as an acknowledged unit of the Royal Navy. 



Quite recently M. Charles Bos, the distinguished 

 French naval expert, declared that on the day when 

 Germany is ready, " in one night her fleets will command 

 that portion of the North Sea which has been marked 

 out by her general staff; and the remainder will be 

 sown with floating mines, of which there exist enormous 

 stocks at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, rendering the area 

 thus sown impracticable to the English fleet." If such 

 a thing really happened that the German outbreak will 

 take this form, then it is impossible to exaggerate the 

 value of such a North Sea Auxiliary as that which I 

 have suggested. 



A remarkable trial for espionage took place at 

 Leipzig on 2istand 22nd December 1910. Two British 

 officers, Lieutenant Brandon, R.N., and Captain Trench, 

 R. M.L.I., were found guilty of attempting to convey to 

 the British Admiralty information the keeping secret of 

 which is considered essential to the national security of 

 Germany. The trial was conducted by fourteen judges 

 of the Supreme Court of the German Empire. The 

 Court found that the attempt to communicate to the 

 British Admiralty information which was both secret 



